SPORTS
PAGE 1B
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20. 2005
WWW.KANSAN.COM
BASEBALL
Looking to end a streak
Rylan Howe/KANSAN
Junior outfieldder Gus Milner swings and misses during the game against Baylor Saturday night. Baylor swept the series and Kansas' team batting average dropped below .300 for the first time this season. The Jayhawks' next game is at 7 tonight against Wichita State at Hoglund Ballpark.
In-state rivals Kansas and Wichita State face off with season series lead and losing streak at stak
BY ALISSA BAUER
abauer@hanss.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
Entering tonight's contest against Wichita State, Kansas is looking for a way out of its current four-game losing streak.
The Jayhawks (24-18, 3-9 Big 12 Conference) are fresh off of their first series sweep defeat at the hands of No. 12 Baylor last weekend.
The Wichita State Shockers (31-11, 6-3 Missouri Valley Conference), on the other hand, just picked up a series victory, taking two of three games from Missouri Valley opponent Northern Iowa last weekend.
Tonight's match-up will mark the third meeting of the year between the in-state rivals. The series is tied at one game apiece, but that will all change tonight.
"It's a big game," senior catcher Sean Richardson said. "We lost our last four in a row, so we've got to come out against Wichita State ready to compete and battle."
The Jayhawks have been outscored 29-9 during the current skid and are looking for that offensive power that they carried earlier in the season.
Before the series against Baylor, Kansas consistently kept its batting average at .300 or better. After being swept by Baylor, however, Kansas dropped to .295 as a team.
The majority of Kansas batters suffered during the series, but not all. Junior first baseman Jared Schweitzer went 3-6 and scored twice in the two games he played. Schweitzer is hitting .338 and will enter tonight's game on an 11-game hitting streak. He is 2-4 with an RBI against Wichita State this year.
Junior outfielder Gus Milner tied up the close game in the series finale against Baylor on Sunday when he hit his team-leading seventh home run.
Milner is hitting .331 and has 51 RBI on the season. He is 5-8 and has six RBI and four runs scored against the Shockers this year.
Richardson hit in the RBI that gave Kansas its only lead of the Baylor series during game three. He is batting .322 and has 28 RBI. Against Wichita State, Richardson is 2-8 with two runs scored.
Overall, Kansas batters didn't fare well against Baylor pitching.
["Baylor] pitched well. I'll give them credit. They are a good team." Richardson said.
Tonight's game will feature two teams with solid pitching and a lopsided ability to score. In their first two meetings, the Shockers have narrowly outlift the Hawkways, 23-21.
Shocker first baseman Derek Schermhorn snapped a 34-game hit streak, in their game against Northern Iowa Sunday.
Muitch is .307 at the plate and leads the Shockers with six home runs this season.
The sophomore is hitting .373 and leads the team with 37 RBI His streak marked the second-longest in Shocker baseball history. Against Kansas, Schermerhorn is 5-8 with an RBI and a run scored this year.
Senior catcher Joe Mucch went 5-11 with three RBI last weekend against the Panthers. Muich continued to do damage against the Jayhawks, going 5-8 with one RBI and two runs scored against Kansas last weekend.
On the mound, Kansas will change its strategy from the previous two match-ups. In both games, coach Ritch Price and his staff gave the younger and less experienced pitchers considerable playing time.
"We're actually going to change our rotation next weekend." Price said.
Tonight, however, left-hander Mike Zagurski (4-4) will pitch against Wichita State. The senior, who has a 4.69 ERA, is the usual Friday night starter, but because of changes being made in the weekend rotation, Zagurski will be available for tonight.
▼ ON THE FLIP SIDE
SEE STREAK ON PAGE 4B
Greene stays clean
Doping scandal tarnishes his competitors
When Maurice Greene walks into Memorial Stadium Saturday to compete in the Kansas Relays, he'll have a crowd behind him. Not because of his roots in Kansas City, Kan. Not because of his dominance at the Kansas Relays in the past. In the midst of BALCO accusations and steroid scandals, Maurice Greene is the easiest man to root for. In the witch hunt known as the BALCO trials, Greene's name has been cleared.
That cannot be said of world-record holder Tim Montgomery. Greene accomplished what he
PATRICK SHEHAN
pshehan@kansan.com
set out to do: Claim the title of the world's fastest man. Montgomery beat Greene's record on September 14, 2002 in Paris, France.
"I am the fastest man to ever run the 100 meters," Montgomery said after the race.
What he failed to mention were his meetings two years earlier with BALCO president Victor Conte, who now drops names to share the guillotine. Montgomery was a product of Conte's campaign to build the world's fastest man. Whether Montgomery knew he was on
THG, a substance banned from sports, should not be in question.
In a period of sports where baseball elites are considering attaching asterisks to the records of such names as Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, the same system can be applied to track. Placing an asterisk next to a name simply exposes the corruption within a sport.
An asterisk does more than place the blame on the crooked. It justifies the athletes who dominated the sport before such corruption. The records of Babe Ruth and Willie Mays could be restored. And Maurice Greene should be next.
There's no doubt that when Montgomery crossed that finish line in Paris, he received help from the BALCO lab. In
the next Guinness World Records, an asterisk needs to be placed next to Montgomery's name.
Greene earned the title of world's fastest man. He wept when he watched Donovan Bailey win the race at the 1996 Olympic games that should have been his for the taking. He trained with H.S.I., a sports management company, created by attorney Emmanuel Hudson. Originally derived from "Hudson Sports Incorporated," the phrase blended into the term, "Handling Speed Intelligently."
With training partners such as Ato Boldon and Jon Drummonds, Greene whittled down the world record by five-tenths of a second.
SEE SHEHAN ON PAGE 4B
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Top 25 guard gives his word
Lewis, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound small forward and shooting guard from Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie, La., told rivals.com that he had committed to the Lavhawks.
Lewis is the 21st-ranked player at his position for the class of 2006, according to the recruiting Web site. He averaged 26.5 points per game, along with eight rebounds as a junior.
The Kansas men's basketball team received a verbal commitment from Dwight Lewis yesterday.
Lewis, who will be a high school senior next fall, had scheduled visits with Kansas next weekend and with Oklahoma during the first weekend in May before committing to Kansas yesterday. Lewis received scholarship offers from Kansas, as well as Texas, Baylor, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas A&M.
— Miranda Lenning
Coach Bill Self has been out on the recruiting trail for most of the month. He said last week that he planned on being home for only a couple days before May 1.
KANSAS RELAYS
BY JONATHAN KEALING
jhealing@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTSWRIVER
Going into the Kansas Relays, meet director Tim Weaver and his staff have 6,000 admission buttons prepared for pre-purchase.
They've already sold out of the first batch of badges, ordered 6,000 more and contemplated ordering a third batch until Weaver realized they wouldn't arrive in time. Overall, the Relays have 12,000 admission buttons and 28,000 admission tickets ready for the weekend.
What happens if all are sold out?
"I think that would be a great
problem to have," Weaver said.
While perhaps far-fetched, it may not be entirely unrealistic. Weaver said that last season only a "nominal" amount of tickets were sold before the day of the event. As always, KU students are admitted to the Relays for free with their KUIDs.
Last season, based primarily on walk-up sales, almost 18,000 people came out. Weaver hoped that strong pre-sales and the Gold Zone would drive attendance much higher, he said.
The Gold Zone will take place between 2 and 5 p.m. on Saturday.
SEE RELAYS ON PAGE 4B
FOOTBALL
Rylan Howe/KANSAN
Junior linebacker Nick Reid returns an interception during the spring game Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Reid scored a touchdown off the interception and also had six tackles during the scrimmage.
Defense shows early promise
BY RYAN COLAIANNI
*colaianni@kansan.com*
KANSAN SPORTSWRIVER
While parts of the offense struggled during Saturday's spring game, the Kansas football team's defense appeared to be just as strong as it was last season.
The defense had six interceptions, including two by freshman cornerback Agib Talib.
Coach Mark Mangino said throughout spring practices that the defense was ahead of the offense, and that observation was consistent with past spring practices he has been a part of.
The Jayhawks tout a talented group of junior linebackers in Nick Reid, Banks Floodman and Kevin Kane. Reid was a first-team all Big 12 selection by the Associated Press last season as he racked up 109 tackles.
The three have been playing with each other since 2002 and are familiar with each other's style of play.
"It all starts with how well you know who you are playing with, and that is only going to make a defense better." Floodman said.
Floodman and Reid both recorded interceptions in the spring game last weekend while Kane led the blue team with eight tackles.
"We are becoming really sharp on our assignments and execution on the defensive side of the ball," Mangino said at the spring game. "We now have a little bit of depth on defense. There are several kids playing on that white defense today that you will see on the field this fall playing a lot for us."
SEE DEFENSE ON PAGE 4B